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Cheetah - Botswana

Cheetah Conservation Botswana

Photo courtesy of Frans Lanting/lanting.com

Photo courtesy of Frans Lanting/lanting.com

Photo courtesy of Ron Kimball/kimballstudios.com

The cheetah’s lean build gives it the speed and agility that make it famous. However, this rangy physique also means that the cheetah struggles to live alongside bigger cats such as lions in reserves and national parks – the cheetah is too small to compete.

Cheetahs therefore live mostly on non-protected land surrounded by farmers and rural communities. Sharing this land is difficult because farmers perceive cheetahs to be a threat. Human-wildlife conflict is largely responsible for the loss of 90% of the cheetah population (around 90,000 individual cheetahs) during just one century.

Botswana is a remaining stronghold for cheetahs, and Cheetah Conservation Botswana’s main task is improving community perceptions towards cheetahs and other carnivores. Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB) works together with the communities that live side-by-side with cheetahs, creating initiatives tailored to meet community needs and priorities. They aim to allow cheetahs to remain as a flagship species for Botswana and its rich biodiversity.

“Botswana has an incredibly important role to play in cheetah conservation globally. It is one of the last and best hopes for the maintenance of the cheetah population.”- Rebecca Klein

A Unique Conservation Approach

Research

Cheetah Conservation Botswana’s research studies the speedy cats and innovative methods to conserve them. Studies investigate cheetah behavior on farmlands, population trends and distribution, prey preferences, and the effectiveness of methods of livestock management in minimizing conflict levels.

Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation

At Cheetah Conservation Botswana’s training workshops, farmers learn how to protect their livestock from cheetahs. Techniques include cheetah-proof kraals (corrals) and livestock guarding dogs. Farmers can visit a demonstration farm or request site visits from Cheetah Conservation Botswana in which staff members assess the farm and suggest improvements to better guard against predators.

Education

Botswana’s next generation – today’s children – are essential to the future of the cheetah in their country. Cheetah Conservation Botswana’s education team visits around 36 schools a year to teach children about the importance of conservation and the importance of predators, including the cheetah.

815

Farmers trained to co-exist with cheetahs since 2014

65

Number of livestock guarding dogs placed with farmers affected by conflict

Rebecca Klein

Rebecca grew up all over the world, moving frequently with her adventurous parents. She has always felt as comfortable around animals as she does around people. She moved to Botswana in 2001 to work at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve and while there cared for two orphaned cheetah brothers who had lost their mother to conflict with farmers.

After working with the orphaned cheetahs, Rebecca tried to find an organization dedicated to protecting Botswana’s cheetahs. Upon discovering that there were none, she decided to start Cheetah Conservation Botswana along with Dr. Kyle Good and Ann Marie Houser. She lives in Botswana and hopes that Cheetah Conservation Botswana will help the cheetah remain as the flagship species for the country’s biodiversity.